Earth Ω
by Dracosy
Summary: Taylor did not trigger within the locker, thought she could have. Her family came from another world, one far away, but really close at the same time, where the supernatural is a part of the nature itself. I own neither worm nor Anima: beyond fantasy, though it would be awesome to. Betaless. Check profile, stuff there.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:**

 **Chrysalis 1.1**

 _"Colin, are you sure about this? I know you cant change your mind at this point, but at least try to be comprehensive and keep yourself calm. We don't know if she is or not the master we are looking for and, even if she is, you would be seeking her in her civilian identity. This can go so wrong in so many ways that I could make a list to keep you busy for a whole week."_

I know she may be right, as always, but we can't let this go as if nothing were happening. If the rumour spread about a ward being mastered, we will lose the faith of many parents and the subsequent ward will be lost, not taking into account the amount of possible para-humans that wont join our ranks. No, this must be fixed now, we cant afford to hide it any longer.

"Dragon. Keep an eye on my brain waves and general cerebral activity. If she try anything we must know right away."

" _I know Colin, I'll keep my full attention on you until the interview is over. You know you can trust me."_

"Shadow stalker. I hope you wont forget the instructions we gave you. You know what will happen if you overreact in any way. Master and stranger protocols are up, and we wont hold back. A ward going wild in a school would be a PR mess. I will make her a few questions and your only purpose here is to allow us to check her response to your presence. We don't know if she is or isn't the responsible of your….. Disability. Stay calm and silent."

"But I know she is the responsible! She triggered the day before I got this… this…. Weakness! And my friends have been reporting some minor problems to me too. Every time they got too close to her shit happens!...sir."

"Well, we still have to end that conversation about what your friends exactly noticed. You didn't gave us any specific detail about it. And your 'I wasn't sure it was her' is not a valid excuse. You should have told us that someone triggered in the school area that day. Besides that, the only reason we are here today is because you show symptoms of being mastered, or at least affected with some kind of unidentified power, and this is the only option we have left. You could be wrong, or intendedly trying to make us lose our time, which could be a side effect or the actual purpose of whatever is affecting you... Anyway, as I said, keep calm and watch the tone you are using to address me."

"Yes, sir."

" _Colin, cut her some slack, picture yourself in her same situation, how would that make you feel like?"_

"I know, I know, its just…. There are already some gossip about her on the net, we are keeping it down but those clowns have been snooping around and a few attempts at hacking our local servers have been detected. Nothing important, sure, but its just a matter of time before a tinker or a thinker got fired up and get some level of success. We just need to deal with this as…."

" _Colin, something is up. You are beginning to display some abnormal levels of stress and something that could be described as brain exhaustion. Calling for back up now."_

"No, wait dragon. Were is she?"

" _According to my armour thermal sensors she was 320 feet away when the change was noticed. It will take her another minute to arrive at her actual walking speed."_

"OK. Call a couple of agents with foam rifles and keep them 400 feet away and ready. Make sure the sniper is out of her for now assumed range at all times and move your armour closer discreetly. Shadow, get yourself ready, non-lethal ammunition and stay as calm as possible. It could still not be her, we wont be the ones to make the first strike, but the second she out herself she's ours."

OOO

At last I would be able to punish that bitch. The filthy rabbit grew a spine because she triggered, but prey would always be prey, and her punishment were about to come with more pain than she was going to be able to handle. Sure, I was going to use non-lethal ammunition as ordered, but I was also eager to see how well she managed with a tinker-made chloroform-arrow, which may had accidentally lost it anaesthetic load, right through her eye. It would even be an improvement on her actual appearance. The whore only had to give me an excuse.

"Everyone get ready. She is almost there. Stalker, focus, you seem absent-minded." Shut up you arrogant fool. I'm more focused than you will ever be! And, if she try to tattle about our little games... I'll accidentally shut her up first.

Knock, Knock. "Principal Blackwell, Its Taylor Hebert. May I come in?"

"Come in Ms Hebert."

The door opened and her head appear from behind, her eyes locking on to me. I was wondering if she recognised me, but then she stared Armsmaster in the same way and, after a few second, a little smile grew on her disgusting face. The little cunt seemed happy to be in the presence of her betters, but I was keen to discover how long that feeling would last.

"Oh, sorry. I….. I was told Principal Blackwell was waiting for me and..."

"Don't worry Ms. We were the ones who asked for your presence. If it's not a problem, we will like to ask you some questions."

"What? No… I mean… yes. I… I guess the is no problem with that." with her that nervous already, it was going to be easier than taking a candy from a child. For an instant I hopped she would have released the power restraining me with her nervousness and, for the shortest instant, my hopes rose.

"Well Ms Hebert. I'm sure you have noticed that a class mate of yours has been skipping school for the last week but, did you know it was because a parahuman power has been influencing her?" And that was it. The second she denied it, his lie detector would go crazy and she would be dooming herself

"Really? I thought it was because...well she broke her leg while training on the track and…. Those take time to heal….. and she is a proud bitch….. I mean…. She's competitive and is probably going hard on the rehabilitation to be able to run asap. Right?" Bitch!?, I thought. The me from back there was just able to focus on how hard she should be punished for the affront and how the bastard wasn't arresting her. I was a wolf at the time, but still a young one.

"I see Ms Hebert. And would you happen to know how she broke her leg?" His further questions made me guess he was trying to get more evidences.

"Hum… well I was there so I saw her trip over something… but, hum… this seems like a police interrogation and I am a minor. Shouldn't my father be here? Or… well, a lawyer or something. Its as if you were saying I am some crazy parahuman who goes randomly harming innocent teenagers around." Each subsequent sentence from her part making me fall deeper into the metaphorical well of wrath.

"You are right Ms Hebert, but in case you were a parahuman we just wanted to make sure no one got out of here injured. And that's why only the three of us are here. Me, a ward to make you feel more comfortable and you." He said that with a straight face. I still find it unbelievable nowadays. Had he just Apprehend her, everything would have been different.

"Well then you should have not bring shadow stalker, no offence intended. Maybe gallant, he seems nice,...or maybe kid win, you know, big guy in armour with little boy in armour. But double S here…. Well, she reminds me of Sophia…. Sophia Hess, you know? part of the slag trio who had been bulling me for the most part of the last two years? You should have made some investigation before hand. And that's not taking into account a week and a half ago when they stuffed me in..."

And then, something broke within me. "I'LL KILL YOU FUCKING WHORE!"

OOO

 **10 Days ago.**

Knock Knock Knock "Taylor! You got asleep. Hurry and I'll get you to school or you wont made it to the first class."

The only answer he got was some incomprehensible mumbling and the sound of a sheet and a blanket rubbing against one another. She had been told to not remain awake until sunrise. But she was stubborn, just like her mother.

The door slammed open and he got in the room. "Kiddo, wake up already. I told you that you must get your healthy eight hours of rest, so you now must deal with the consequences of going to sleep that late. You've got 30 minutes left, get a shower while I got something ready for you to eat at school. You can have breakfast in the car." Seen no response he pulled the sheets and found hir daughter laying there, with one of her mother's books... again. "Taylor Hebert, up know!"

"Da'...l b fun. Jst ougt port masel t'ool, all bime" She reassuringly mumbled back.

"Yea, sure, whatever... I don't have the slightest idea of what you just said, and I speak more languages than you do for sure. Get up and get ready. I'll be downstairs" And, with that, he left while his daughter began to rise.

She woke up and began to focus while doing her morning routines. She got a shower, checked her backpack, dressed up with some random cloth from her wardrobe and went straight down for breakfast.

"Morning dad" She said happily. School got better lately and, as a result, she was getting up to date with her assignments. Maybe they got bored already. If it had keep up for a few more weeks she would have stop their little pranks. Maybe little by little, didn't want to be too obvious.

"Morning kiddo. Grab the food I'll get the car warm in the meanwhile."

"But dad! You told me that you would teleport me there!"

"Taylor... we can be seen, and I have already told you a hundred thousand of times it's not teleportation! Eitherway, we can't afford to grab any attention, you know it, and when did I told you that exactly?"

"Dad, don't worry. School has being less annoying lately and I have found a safe spot were no one goes. And, if you recall it, I told you a few minutes ago when you rampaged in my room, can you remember it now?"

"Fine… wait no! Kiddo, stop wasting time and get ready, I'll wait for you in the car." with that said, she was left alone in the kitchen.

Its was a nice day. With the snowstorm which had been over the city during the last week now gone, the sun was shinning strongly and the clear skies would assist it in its task to clear the snow from the streets. Definitely a nice day to be out. Hopefully, school would be uneventful like during the last weeks before holidays. The trio had been ignoring her for the last month, and it was definitely an improvement.

OOO

After dad left me and departed, I joined the rest of the students arriving. My way to the gates was uneventful, but something seemed… off. Some girls were greeting me, being way too nice. Something was out of place, but I couldn't do a thing about it, well, there was, but I was not going to rape people's minds just because I could. I had to hurry and go straight to the first class with just a fast stop at the locker to pick up the books.

Then, I discovered what was going on. There was a filthy smell being expelled from my locker accompanied by a brown-red thick ichor with some things swimming in it, definitely larvae of some kind. I probably should had not open it, but maybe something was savable.

Big mistake. The locker has been filled with used tampons and plenty of other sanitary waste. It was probably done the last day before holidays, going by its solidified state. Quite a piece of work if you ask me. It must have been hard, and quite disgusting, to stuff it all there when it was still fresh. How much effort and work they put in to bully me meant, at the least, that their lives were quite empty without me. I was most likely the hub of their universe at the time.

Unexpectedly, something grabbed me by my hair and pushed me inside the locker. It was going to be unpleasant.

"Hope you feel like at home you filthy whore!" someone called out over the laughs of all the students. Probably Sophia. It's nice to have such a good classmates.

OOO

And so here I am. Covered in filth. Worms and other bugs crawling all over my body. The stink is even worse inside than outside. And I may have thrown up, not really sure about it. The worst part is that I know I will be stuck in here for another hour at a minimum if I do nothing, because no one will come back here until the next period. What should I do first? Probably go home and get clean is my best option. Dad wont be there so he wont be enraged by this. Then I'll just come back after lunch break and do as if nothing had happened, it's not like they will do something to punish them even if I complain. I'll just have to raise the threat level of my pranks, maybe I could impose a restriction over Sophia and let her kill herself against some gangsters.

As expected, no one came, at least not to free me, so I just pushed mi mind out of my body. This ain't something I would make a mistake with since it was one of the easier things to do. Once outside, my brainwaves took form and I checked the hallway. It was empty, mostly. The trio was still there but they were already on their way to our classroom so they probably wont notice if I got out stealthily. Focusing in my inner power and pushing it outside I was now able to interact with the physical world freely, more or less, and began to open the padlock with its combination. Unfortunately, they took the trouble to change it. It left me with one single way out of the locker, but just thinking that my body was in there was enough to make me sick. Taking my stance I began to hit the lock with my intangible hands. I was not the best hitter out there, not good at aiming my punches, but the lock was not going to bother to defend himself from the attacks. After a few hits, it broke down as a chunk of frozen metal. Opening the locker door I could appreciate the effort made to do this to me. The locker was small, barely enough for me to fit inside, but they made it so the waste would left enough room left for me to fit and, at the same time, limit my movements even more. It was horrible, of course, but horribly beautiful too, like one of those nasty artworks from modern artists this days. Anyway, after a couple of seconds my body fell out and I was just able to hold it, and prevent myself from hitting hard the floor, when I heard something hitting the floor. Turning my ghostly head to its source I found out something problematic. I forgot about the bitches somehow and they heard the cracks coming from the padlock or the heavy sound it made against the floor. Right know, they were looking to my unconscious body half levitating where I was holding my upper half, some good two feet over the floor, while my legs were limp or, depending on the point of view, doing the most hardcore sleep-walker pose ever.

Mom's books says that actual conflict is the best way to push your power up, and dad wont be able to forbid me from doing this if he doesn't know. This is just going to be so much fun.

OOO

Everyone else had already left and we were doing the same. This time thought, it felt as if we had gone to far. Taylor could end traumatized or worst, dead. But it's better to be on this end of the bullying than on the other. Emma could be a bit hardcore when she hated you, and she must definitely hate her ex-friend deeply. Sophia was already plotting about their next prank and, if she was the one to come up with a plan, it will surely be physically painful for the poor girl.

Suddenly a chill went over my full body when I was about to turn left and take my way to my own classroom. Then a metallic noise came from the lockers, followed by a couple more of them, which made me froze on site. After the last one was heard, a different metallic sound echoed with an almost crunching tune to it. The others have heard it too and were already turned looking at something with awe and a touch of panic.

Slightly twisting my neck I glimpsed the scene physically ready to run for my life, something you learn to do at a moment notice if you get to survive in this town long enough. Unfortunately, the scene I observed froze me on the spot.

Taylor's locker had some kind of darkness next to it that stood out in the scene. The humanoid shape could not be seen, but it was surrounded by a thin mist that slowly flowed over it until it reached the floor, as if something really cold were there, giving it an easily recognizable shape: Taylor's.

It reached slowly with its ghostly arm and the locker's door opened and, after a few seconds, the body fell out of it. The ghost made a fast move and prevented it from falling all the way down when Emma dropped her notebook, dragging its attention. Right after the noise from the notebook died, the specter turned its ghostly form in our direction. I could swear it smiled before the mist vanished and Taylor landed gently on the floor, covered with waste, blood and vomit.

We all glanced at each other and back to her as if expecting her to do something, but nothing came.

"What the fuck was that?" asked Sophia to no one in particular.

"She triggered, obviously." Answered Emma almost proudly. "Maybe you should check if she is alright, since you are the most durable of us... just in case."

"Yeah, I know I'm th..." Was saying Sophia saying when she suddenly fell backwards with a creak. When she stood again there was a nasty burn surrounding her nose, which was probably broken if you take into account the blood and the weird shape it had. "Fuck! This bitch broke my nose!?"

Then, everything went to hell. Sophia turned into a black fog mass and sprinted toward Taylor's limp body while Emma grabbed me and dragged me into another hallway.

"You wont say a word about this, to anyone, period! If you do, there will be... consequences." She said with cold voice, rage drawn all over her face and filtering into her voice. "Am I clear?"

"So… Sophia is…. Sha... Shadow Stalker!?" Was all I could say in return.

"AM I CLEAR!" repeater with ever more rage than before.

"Yes of.. of course, who do you think I am? I would never sell out a friend!" nor I want to be killed by you both bitches, but that was something I would never say out aloud.

While she was still glaring me, a new voice could be heard next to the lockers so Emma Took a peek and came back running. "Go back to class now! The janitor is there checking on Taylor and Sophia is no where to be found. We would be in problems if we are seen around. Run, now!" A overwhelming desire grew within me and, suddenly, I felt the need to please Emma, so I did just as she said.

With that, I left straight to the classroom. When I arrived, they had not even begin yet, so she would be delighted with my performance. Then, I realized it all took us just a few seconds, one minute tops, but it felt like an eternity to me. Maybe I can do something else later for Emma? She would surely be please if I helped her.

OOO

 **10 days later**

School is nice again. At first I was worried that the PRT would show or call home because I kind of attacked Sophia, and the trio surely knows I was the one to do it, but no one has inquired about my absence on the first day or the fact that Sophia got a frost burn on her face. It was actually something to be expected since they didn't even call home to inform dad (something I'm glad about). Besides, since Sophia got that nasty accident while training in the track field where her leg snapped and some other minor events affected her partners and their groupies, everyone has been avoiding me, making it definitely the best week since I joined Winslow high. Even best, today we have the wards coming in to do some PR event obviously to try to begin with the recruitment of the students in case any of them triggered. Something very likely to happen in such a wonderful school. I wonder who will be coming this time.

First class today is Mr Knott's, so it will be mostly free time before the Ward's event. Today's assignment was especially easy so I got plenty of time to gossip on PHO.

Truly a nice day. Apparently, someone has uploaded a video of shadow stalker from last week. Probably from the night after she broke accidentally her leg. Panacea was surely call in to fix it. Well, good luck fixing her other problem. Its rewarding to see her on the video desperately trying to run away from a bunch of random ABB guys. How was she unable to notice her own unability to use her power escaped my mind. Just plainly stupid. Apparently the most spread theory is that there is some tinker-designed disease that took parahuman powers away, and that's why she had being in containment since that night. Really, who the hell made up all those theories? I feel bad about those truly good guys out there who are panicking, but I can't do anything about it… actually I could, but I wont.

Bells rang and we were allowed outside, at least most of us. Mr Knott Blocked my path.

"Taylor, Principal Blackwell is waiting for you in her office."

"Is there something wrong?" Oh god, did they caught me already?

"I have no clue about what she want from you Ms Hebert, but Hurry up if you don't want to miss the Ward's event. They may sign some autographs before leaving."

"Of course professor, I'll be right there."

Doing a quick scan on the zone while walking there, I make a disturbing discovery. There are two minds in her office, none hers. Both are para-humans. Who? That's another matter altogether. I could check who they are, but it would be harder to fake my reaction once I get there, and I am already pretty bad with my acting.

Maybe two para-humans are too much for me, even now than I am stronger than I was a week ago… hell, one may be too much depending on the skill set. But I have some time, if I keep a relaxed pace I could probably hit their mental barriers up to at least 20 times, enough to break their minds down to a point where they will be virtually unable to resist my control. Lets hope there is no need for that. I also noticed someone on the roof, a cape for sure, maybe some kind of thinker, since I can't read his mind and so far thinkers are the only ones with such level of success resisting me.

OOO

"Come in Ms Hebert."

Lets see who this girl is. Maybe if stalker is right we could force her into the wards. If this is some kind of power block ability we could truly use her.

" _Colin don't space out, focus"_

"Oh, sorry. I….. I was told Principal Blackwell was waiting for me." Don't seem like a powerful parahuman to me, once again she could be, appearances can be deceitful.

"Don't worry Ms. We were the ones who asked for your presence. If its no problem we will like to ask you some questions." So you can lie to us and we can get you arrested.

"What? No… I mean… yes. I… I guess the is no problem with that." too shy.. or a decent actress.

"Well Ms Hebert. I'm sure you know a class mate of yours has been skipping school for the last week. But, did you know that it was because a parahuman power has being influencing her?"

" _She is getting nervous Colin, but there is no change in your mental state, keep going."_

"Really? I thought it was because...well she broke her leg while training on the track and…. Those take time to heal….. and she is a proud bitch….. I mean…. She's competitive and is probably going hard on the rehabilitation to be able to run asap. Right?" that's… true? Maybe we were wrong about stalker suspicion.

"I see, Ms Hebert. And would you happen to know how she broke her leg?" this one will surely get a better reading from the detector.

"Hum… well I was there so I saw her trip over something… but, hum… this seems like a police interrogation and I am a minor. Shouldn't my father be here? Or… well, a lawyer or something. Its as if you were saying I am some crazy parahuman, with the PRT around and all, who goes randomly harming innocent teenagers around." hum, half a true, she must be hiding something. Maybe the accident wasn't such, but she could have just let something on the tracking field for her to trip over…. Something very improbable knowing shadow stalker's skill-set.

" _We are getting nothing out of this, she is way too nervous, try to get her to relax around you. Chat with her a little and I'll tell you when to go on with the questioning."_

"You are right Ms Hebert, but in case you were a parahuman we just wanted to make sure no one got out of here injured. And that's why only the three of us are here. Me, a ward to make you feel more comfortable and you."

" _That's just… That's the first thing that comes to your mind? Really? Do you even know how to perform an interrogation properly? Colin, you are exasperating sometimes. You should have just allowed Miss Militia to perform it, since she actually offered to do so a ton of times."_

"Well then you should have not bring shadow stalker, no offense intended. Maybe gallant, he seems nice,...or maybe kid win, you know, big guy in armour with little boy in armour. But double S here. Well she remind me of Sophia…. Sophia Hess, you know, part of the slag trio who had been bulling me the last two years? You should have made some investigation before hand. And that's not taking into account half and a week ago when they stuffed me in..."

OOO

"I'LL KILL YOU FUCKING WHORE!" Said shadow stalker while taking her crossbow out, already loaded. Freeing the projectile in it with a fluid practiced motion.

Time went into slow-motion for Armsmaster. A reactor humming came inside as the window glass shatter and was spread all over the room while foam covered Shadow Stalker from top to toe. At the same time the quarrel flew straight to its target while the poor girl was obviously trying to place her hands between the offensive flying object and her head. To little, to late.

The impact was going to remain in his nightmares for quite some time, even more in hers if she survived.

At first, it felt as is the arrow were going to just stop there, right after it bypassed the glasses' lens, rubbing against the eye but not trespassing its boundaries, but it was just for a split second. Then, the eye gave up, flesh splitting apart, tears of blood coming out.

The girl screamed, just for a second, and then passed out. Probably the best she could have done.

" _Colin, I'm contacting the PRT right now! This must be contained and Ms Hebert need medical assistance or she may die."_

"I now dragon, this is going to be a mess that the PR department may not be able to fix. A ward going crazy and trying to kill a defenseless girl? We are fucked up. Try to contact panacea and ask her for assistance. Maybe if she keep no long term damage we can convince her family not to sue us or sell the story to the press."

" _Colin you should think about her mental health and well being, not just focus on the PR part. Anyway, hand me the girl. Panacea is in Arcadia at the moment and it will be faster if I get her there."_ With that, the girl was rapidly moved onto the robotic arms. _"And Colin, I have been checking her family background. There was some missing data and when I tried to check them with other 'sources' I got nothing. Her mother died 2 years ago, the same day of the Simurgh attack to Madison. It is stated that it was during a car accident, but there are no autopsy report or hospital records about her. And her father has never being treated from any injury or illness. Not a single record about him beside the ones about his job and the essential personal data required to have a legal ID. We must be careful about this Colin. I dismissed it as a coincidence at first, but it may be bigger than we thought, or we may be targeting the wrong individual in this para-human hunting."_

Without giving him time to answer her, the connection ended and the armour left.

OOO

Something must have happened. The protectorate wont call me out of class unless something big was going on, even more knowing it had been a request from dragon herself. The wards are today doing some kind of exhibition in Winslow high and there must have been some accident.

After a few minutes I can finally see dragon's armour up in the sky carrying someone. Not a Ward by its clothes… there is something on its head… oh my good god! It's someone with an arrow on its face!

"Panacea, I'm sorry for the fast call but this girl need help and fast. I think the bleed stop already, but the bolt is still there. If you could recover her eye it would be of great help, there has been and accident, but I can't tell you the details."

Nice, they fuck it up and hurry up to me because they can't fix their own messes. Well this poor girl don't have to pay for them. "Don't worry, I'll fix her. But you should keep a tighter hold on Stalker, and before you say anything to deny it, it's obviously her doing. Well, lets see….. everything else seems alright, and as you suspected she ain't bleeding. Take the arrow away please, I'll fix her eye….. well this is unexpected, I thought you took her to me right after this accident of yours happened"

"That's right, we took only a few seconds to pick her up and I needed a few minutes to bring her here. If you find something unusual, maybe is because she is a parahuman?"

"I'm not giving away para-humans like that, you should know that already Dragon. But, without making an example of it, between the two of us, I'll tell you that she isn't. It's just that she ain't bleeding. Some people blood coagulate faster than others, that's all. She must be on the bottom of the time scale. Its not like the wound is closing itself beyond the normal healing rating, which is irrelevant at this point. Give me a few seconds and I'll be done. Fortunately, the arrow didn't even scratched the ethmoid bone, so she has no persistent brain damage, just a small concussion." It must have been an accident after all, she must have been quite far away for the arrow to stop half-way through the eye. "Done. I have done what I can with her eye Dragon, but she will probably remain unconscious for a while. You should take her to the hospital so they can make sure she is alright."

"Thank you Panacea, you are a life saver. Sorry if I got your class interrupted."

"Not a problem, I like to be of help. Hope she got better. I'm coming back to classroom so have a nice day"

"You too." After those simple words, she left with the poor girl on its arms. Time to go back to Parahuman studies… well I'll take the long way back.

OOO

The first thing I felt was pain. The second was the sound of a rhythmic beeping. Then, the memories caught me. I'd been shot, in the face, by Sophia fucking Hess. Definitely could have planed that better. At least this headache is proof enough that I survived. Thanks God for the little mercies.

"Hey Kiddo, I know you are awake. Open those eyes and tell me why exactly you didn't call me in." Dad told me in a harsh tone. This could be worse…... I guess.

The movement of my eyelids was accompanied by a feeling of dizziness and a hot pain I could place right behind my eyes. "Dad, could you please close the curtains? Sunlight kind of hurt right now." Without giving and answer he took a few steps and closed the shutter. I Guess that's even better. Crack opening my eyes I saw him coming back slowly to the chair he must have being in until a few seconds ago. "Thanks." Opening them at last I saw a soft smile spring up over his face. He wasn't mad, that was nice. He was getting quite good at keeping his mood under control.

"So, what happened? Armsmaster apologized to me and said there had been an accident but you were alright, but no one has shown up since I was leaded here by a PRT agent. I know they are within the hospital boundaries, but I would rather wait for your explanation before I go and ask for retribution."

"It's…. It's nothing dad, OK? It was just an unfortunate accident and ,as you can see, I'm perfectly fine. I'll told you the whole story once we are back at home… promise?"

"I'll thrust you on this, but we can't just let it be. I'll call for the doctors to discharge you. Then, I'll require a better explanation from them if you try to avoid the subject." He suddenly got better at faking his 'I'm not mad' face, but I could still see through it.

"Please dad, let me talk with them, I may have some request to make from them in order to keep this down." As an answer he simply raised one eyebrow, but I took it as a sign of approval.

OOO

"… and we can't determine if it has been one way or the other Armsmaster. She may have been mastered as she claims, or not, but from what little you got out from that horribly conducted interview she was already on bad terms with the girl." Said Miss Militia, angry with both, her boss and her subordinate."She will be kept under arrest, indefinitely, in a containment cell under brute 2 protocols and with master and stranger protocols also taken into account. The second covering layer of the cell will remain electrified at all times, in case she recover her powers at any point. And, before you say it again, no, the wards are under my direct command and I wont let someone who attempted to murder a kid running around on my watch, no matter how much she claims she was being controlled, it could happen again with more lethal consequences... in a more public place."

Armsmaster took a deep breath followed by a large sigh. "Okay Ms Militia. But we are already low on numbers so anyone and everyone is needed, and Ms Hebert turned out to not be a parahuman. We can't afford to lost Shadow Stalker right now, so I'll let you keep her contained for a week. After that she is up for active service again, we will just need to keep an eye on her."

Miss Militia glared at him, but that was the best she would get out of him, and she new it. "Then I'll send the orders back to..."

Knock, knock. A nurse got into the room they were chatting in. "Sorry to interrupt, but you told us to inform you once the patient from the room 412 were awake, and her father is asking for a doctor to discharge her."

"Thank you miss Hayes, we will be right there, could you please tell the doctor to give us a few minutes before he arrives?"

"You are welcome Armsmaster, and of course I'll make the doctor wait." The nurse left giggling and closed the door behind her.

"I think you should let me handle this Armsmaster, she may show a bad reaction from seen you again. Those kind of physical injuries leave emotional ones behind and we don't want this situation to get even worse." Miss Militia crossed her arms over her chest and stared him with a severe expression.

"Fine, go ahead. I'll wait nearby in case you need reinforcements." Miss Militia answer was to travel the path to the door sighing. Closing the door, she walked through the path to the girl's room.

When she made it to the room 412 the door was half open and a steady voice could be heard from the inside.

"…..even try to remove us from the map to cover up their own failures."

"oh. come on dad. As if. They would have done that by now if it was even a choice, and they haven't. You just let me handle the negotiations when the time comes please."

"I'll allow you to do that, and I don't want to be negative or disregard your negotiation skills, but when in public you turn rambling at best."

"Practice makes perfection dad. I wont get any better by avoiding those situations."

Knock, knock, knock. "Hello, I'm Ms Militia, may I come in?"

With them there at last, it was the time to see what she could get out of that unpleasant situation. "Yes please, suit yourself. W… we want to discuss some matters"

"So do us." She approached with a steady pace to the bed's end, eyeing Mr Hebert on her way there. "I want to apologize about what happened to you Miss Hebert, but we made everything we could to remove any permanent damage from you. In exchange, we would like to keep this whole incident as a secret."

"That's all?! You want us to just pretend it didn't happened at all because you fixed the physical damage?! Just because you..."

His daughter grabbed softly his shoulder saying with an obviously faked offended expression "Dad please, let me handle did as you promised not that long ago." When he nodded, she just went on. "Miss Militia, we are thankful for your assistance, I'm not denying that, but we wont lay down just because of that. I'll probably have to endure hellish nightmares about this for the rest of my live and I want a nice monetary compensation to keep this hole situation low."

Miss Militia gave her a weird look, and then with a straight face answered. "Sweat heart, I'll offer you some kind of payment for your silence but, I guess your father there already told you that, and no offense intended, you may be the worst liar I have seen in my whole life." After that her whole stance shifted, at least to the eyes of Danny, who relaxed notoriously himself as well. "Taylor, may I call you by your first-name?" with a nod from the girl she just went on. "You thought this was going to be some king of negotiation, and tried to begin high on your side so you could ask latter for something easier and make us think we won over you." It was not a question, just a statement. The opposing part blushed a bit and suddenly found new developed interest in her sheets, which she proceeded to stare intently. "So in order to save us both time, why don't you told me what you really want and I promise I will do my best, if its within our power, to help you with it."

After a few minutes of weird quietness in the hospital room, Taylor build up enough courage to speak again. "I want to be transferred." taking another breath she keep on "To Arcadia High, I know you can make people skip the waiting list when you want to. You do it when a ward joins up the team and there are suddenly a change on the waiting list shortening it by 4-5 persons."

"That's an easy matter we can arrange, but I must ask. Are you sure about this? You seen quite knowledgeable about this things, thank to internet I guess, so why do you want to be in the same school the wards went to? You may end up with shadow stalker being your class mate. Aren't you scared of her?" It was suspicious, did she know shadow stalker was a student in Winslow? Or even who she actually was? But she could not ask it directly, tenderness was the right way to manage it.

"I…. I know it may be the case, but that's the second request I have. I want some kind of restraining order for shadow stalker. I don't want her to be able to be less than a mile away from me."

"That seems like a reasonable demand, but you must understand we can't do that, not while in school at least. It will give away her identity" Thinking for a few second, Tailor began looking for a good enough new offer before Miss Militia kept talking. "What if I personally assure you that she wont be allowed to approach you while in costume nor to interact with you out of it until we can move her to another location safely?"

Mr Hebert seemed satisfied with the offer but the girl was deliberating about it. Not that everyone else didn't already knew she was more than eager to accept the offer, she had a severe expression on her face as if in deep though, but her mouth was twitching with a contained smile. For the girl's sake, both waited for her to translate her thought into words.

After that, it was just a matter of reading and signing the disclosure contract the PRT provided to keep them both shut alongside with the one where the PRT compromised to fulfill her requests and a small monetary compensation that Miss Militia herself suggested to ask for before the PRT Lawyer arrived.

That done, they left the hospital, a little more wise and wealthier. It would take a week for them to arrange her transfer, so until then she was free to do whatever she wanted to.

OOO

Once we arrived home, the harder part began. I had to convince dad to allow me to hunt criminals at night. He wont allow me to do so as he had already stated plenty of times. But now I had more control over my power and have some safe to use applications of it. By this point, mom would have throw me outside to fight the protectorate itself if I had ever asked, but I could not use that as leverage, It wouldn't be fair, he deserved better.

As soon as the door was closed he turned to me and glared me loving eyes and a smile that scared me a little. "Full story, now." was all he said. As I saw no way out from that situation, the truth was exposed for him to judge.

"Well there was an incident on my first school day last week, because Emma and two or her new friends have been bulling me for little more than a year..." his face was retorting slowly as my words flowed. "Don't be mad, I didn't told you anything about it because you were enclosed in your room mourning mom when it all begun… not that I am blaming you, but you know you ignored and neglected me and the world for almost 3 months... Anyway, they have been slowly escalating and so have I. Last Monday they locked me inside of my own locker, but when I thought it was safe, I got out using my power… and they king of noticed it."

"YOU REVEALED YOUR POWERS! ARE YOU INSANE! YOU KNOW WE ARE..."

"Dad! Please! I know that! They saw nothing, not really, and I was apparently unconscious the whole time." when he calmed down a bit I went on "The thing is that the PRT came today to investigate me, and I gave them exactly what they were looking for. I pushed Sophia to attack me, a poor defenseless girl, with her weapons but, when I left her be, she pressed her crossbow trigger and I got shot." no need to tell him I most probably only survived because of the Telekinetic armour I was able to raise at the last second.

After he discovered that I was the one to force the ward to point her weapon in my general direction he got a little mad, but still, she was the one to willingly pull the trigger, so it was only partially my fault and the penalty wasn't too big.

Right after dinner was served I brought the hero topic to light, again. He made a point of letting me know I could not sneak at night without him noticing (something I already knew), while during the day I'd be at a school which actually cared and would call him if I skipped classes. Ultimately, I managed to make him give in and we reached an agreement.

During my free week he would come out with me at night and he will be the one calling the shots about who we could attack and who we couldn't, and I would train with him during day. Not perfect, true, but better than nothing. When he deemed me able to handle myself against non-cape armed groups, I'll be allowed to go out by myself as long as I avoided capes (easier said than done in this city, but I'm not the one talking him out of his delusion). Dad would be using his old costume, and I would pick one mom's old ones, those she used to wear back in the late eighties, call it a good luck charm or sentimentalism.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

 **Interlude 1.1 PHO 1**

 **Welcome to Parahumans Online message boards.**

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 **+Topic: Old Glories are back?**

 **In: Boards** **News** **Events** **America** **Brockton Bay**

 **Bagrat** (Original Poster)(Veteran Member)(The guy in the know)

Posted on January 15th, 2011:

I'm gladly surprised to be the one to open this thread. Its not everyday that a supposedly deceased villain couple reappear in the scene. **Doom's Shadow** & **Over-mind** were listed as the few confirmed deceased capes after the Simurgh attack in Wisconsin almost 2 years ago. But now **here** they are back again in this video. Sorry about the resolution but my phone has a shitty camera and midnight's darkness didn't help either.

Any further information goes bellow XD.

PD: I'll extend this with further information and some other shots I took after I wake up this afternoon and re-watch the videos with a clearer state of mind, its 6:00am and I need to have some sleep. Night everyone!

 **(Showing page 2 of 23)**

► **Shadow Stalker** (Veteran Member)(Verified Cape)(Ward)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

CapeGeek101: No, for the hundredth time, he is not my father, it's just a coincidence.

You know, it's not that weird for two capes with a shadow state to have the word shadow as a part of their cape names. I just never heard about him until after I joined the wards.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Veteran Member)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

I've been doing a bit of investigation myself about this, and this is my conclusion:

1\. The man MAY or MAY NOT be Doom's Shadow. We have his profile **here** and, beside the fact that the costume fit its description or his physical similarity, he does nothing in that video, so we can't even confirm if he's a cape or not, can be some random guy in a costume. People do stuff to get leverage. It may be some kind of tactic to scare those ABB or to draw media attention.

2\. She is NOT Over-mind. The costume looks like the one from her first appearances, like 20+ years ago, and she seems shorter (quite like the over-mind from that time). But the most relevant part is that the skill-set doesn't match. As you can see **here** Over-Mind was a Shaker 10 (Manton free). Those guys would be death before you were even able to pick up your phone.

3\. This "Teenager"? Seems to be a powerless fighter until minute 1:23 when she "Dodged" a bat to her head without moving, the bat just went through, breaker 1-2 maybe?. Later she accidentally punched a wall and after that every single ABB guy just seems to run away for no apparent reason. I have been there 1º thing this morning, there are cracks on the wall, from bottom to top... of a 5 floor building. Apparently the hole structure got damaged with 1 single hit, but there is no contact point or out of place holes. I'll bet she is some kind of Striker but spread any dealt damage all over the target.

The conclusion I got is that she is someone fresh triggered and the guy may be her dad, the whole thing a ruse to let her practice with non-cape opponents while they are scared about who the two were pretending to be.

► **All Seeing Eyes** (Veteran Member)(Not a cape)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

Shadow Stalker: you keep denying it just because he was a villain and you have to keep up with the PR department, am I wrong?, but the dates match. She had a downtime for 8 month 16 years ago and, on her last picture before that break, she was obviously pregnant. After that, they both got out of the scene, but for some Endbringer situation were they appeared.

EDIT: I deleted most of my post since, apparently, Void_cowboy posted pretty much the same things half a second before (I hate you so much), but I will leave those he didn't.

In case you don't know, Doom's Shadow was a Breaker 8. He never ever got into combat without his Shadow form because it's stated that it gave him a Brute 8 rate alongside with a Mover(teleporter) 8 one. His costume was seen only during exceptional situation (Mostly while eating before an Endbringer attack), so there are no actual visual footage of his costume and only those taking part in those can confirm it. It may be some guy making it out of the details you can find in his profile.

Any way, this girl may actually be the lost daughter of the pair. Even if they died in Wisconsin their daughter may have survived, you know?

I have inspected the video frame by frame and I have found something everyone else missed. If you check this **slow-motion** cut from the provided video you can see how she actually turns into fog when the bat was supposed to hit her, recovering right after the bat reached the other side. That makes her a breaker/stranger. And the kind of damage that building suffered was the same one Doom's Shadow used to do with his attacks, but way weaker. The cracks were barely a tenth of an inch deep.

Taking what we know about powers heritage, thanks to new wave, she seems to have some weakened variation of Doom's Shadow set. Knowing that and the fact that Doom's shadow was **[Deleted by Administrator]**

With that said, there is only one question to be answered:

When will your sister join the Wards Stalker?

 **Warning:**

 **Tin_Mother:** You now the rules, and that's quite dangerous info to have.

► **Pebedoar** (Veteran Member)(Home-schooled)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

So, Who will do her? I'd totally do her.

That guy may be her boyfriend, anyone else has a link with a better resolution?

 **Warning:**

 **Tin_Mother:** You should really stop with those commentaries. She is probably a minor, so this kind of attitude wont be allowed.

► **Vista** (Veteran Member)(Verified Cape)(Ward ENE)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

All Seeing Eyes **:** Please, I know you like to tease others but, whenever you get her upset, it's us who must deal with it.

► **Flexon** (Veteran Member)(Verified Cape)(Ward NNE)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

Guys, how do you even manage to have so many people triggering there? We have like 12 times your population here and a tenth of your cape ratio.

► **Terraer** (Veteran Member)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

Another cape, wow, so unusual. Who is going to repair that building? Why do you always talk about what they do as if there are no collateral damage? Or as if they were simply a footnote?

► **HotGirl96** (Veteran Member)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

Perspy: No, we won't trust your info unless you show us some proof first. People didn't even acknowledge you. 15 posts and I am the only one who dignified to answer to you.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Veteran Member)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

All Seeing Eyes **:** Beat ya! I'll be the master detective from now on.

► **TopGirl** (Veteran Member)(Model to be)

Replied on January 15th, 2011:

Exactly what we need in the bay, more crazy capes. We already have more than we can handle with collateral girl out there protecting us. Check this **video** to see her latest act of "heroism".

 **(Showing page 2 of 23)**

OOO

 **(Showing page 23 of 23)**

► **Aegis** (Veteran Member)(Verified Cape)(Wards ENE Chieftain)

Replied on January 16th, 2011:

Terraer, Chaos Puddle: The PRT, Protectorate or us, the Wards, are not responsible for the damages dealt by rogues or vigilantes even if they did them while fighting criminals. Even knowing this, we try our best, with the resources we have access to, to fix all those issues as soon as possible.

Ananke: No, its not up to the unpowered to fix our messes. That's just the wrong way to want things to be. Be glad you only got a warning because of it. The way you phrased it? I would have banned you.

That said, if anyone see that couple around please keep your distance or call the PRT. The original ones may have had their threat level removed because they were reported as deceased, but if they were the real ones it could be dangerous to poke them around. Exert caution until new information is gathered.

► **Odette** (Veteran Member)(Lyon survivor)

Replied on January 16th, 2011:

Aegis: I'll like to say that it's (censored) to call them villains, and no comments about the threat level... If it's really them, we should be partying. I was there on Lyon during the Endbringer attacks (yes, both of them) and both times they saved my ass. Maybe I am biased because they were originally Lyon based French capes (supposedly), but they only ever targeted violent gangs. Doom's Shadow was really nice and fatherly (sue me, I was 8) but his French was funny at best. Over-mind on the other hand was a nice teenager at the time and I am in debt with her because she actually gave me a new leg somehow during the second attack. I don't know how she did it (Shakers can't do that right?) but one second I was missing it and the next there was a hole on the floor and my leg was back. I'll like to see you guys doing half of what they did.

XxVoid_CowboyxX, All Seeing Eyes: I can confirm it's the real guy, at least the costume is the same. When they were helping me he shifted out of his breaker state, because I was scared of him, and I will never ever forget them.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster)(Veteran Member)(The guy in the know)

Replied on January 16th, 2011:

Hey, I'm back up. I've check it out with dad (who was the one to point out who they may be in the first place XD) and apparently their original profiles were quite different. Before the Endbringer first appearance they were rated at breaker 2(Doom's Shadow) & Striker 2(Over-mind) and it remained like that until 26/3/94 when they took part in an Endbringer encounter for the first time. There is no additional information about it, but the next day they grow out a level 1 threat out of no where and their profiles were updated to the ones they have now. No need to point out New York is still there, but I'll do it just in case you are missing out one of the bigger cities in the world.

Point is, well intended or not, those two are dangerous and, if they are back, we are bound to see some response from the PRT.

► **Über** (Veteran Member)(Verified cape)(Because peanuts)

Replied on January 16th, 2011:

Hi all and, before you ask, yep, posting from the moon. Here I got some extra information for those who seek it, straight from PRT servers for your personal enlightening:

◈ **Doom's Shadow; Unknown**

 **Classification:** Breaker 8 (sub; brute 8, Mover 8(teleporter))

 **Disposition** : Villain

 **Location** : Unknown **First appearance** : 1987

 **Age** : Unknown/30+ **Status** : Missing/Deceased

 **Height** :5ft 10 in **Weight** : Unknown

 **Threat** **level** : 1 **Body** **count** : 5500+

 **Appearance** : Tall and thin. Seems to wear a long gabardine. Endbringer reports indicate it is black with red lines all along and a hood which partially cover his face.

 **General** :

Until 26/03/1994: low profile vigilante with low rated breaker skills, eluded contact with other heroes or vigilantes. Mainly focused on violently exterminating gangs along the world theoretically to stole their resources.

After 26/03/1994: Threat level increased to level 1 due to performance during Endbringer attack; _check file #E000302-27._ Some violent encounters with PRT & Protectorate members

 **Personality** :

Unknown. Always performs as a bodyguard of his partner. Relationship suspected between the two. React violently to threats to his partner.

 **Powers** :

Can switch to a shadow state which gives him increased strength and invulnerability to physical damage, while remain able to interact with the physical world. Only vulnerable to some pure energy blasts while in this form, fire has been reported to be useless against him. Able to handle energy with his bare hands; _check footage from file #E000302-27, minute 0:12_

He can also teleport short distances, supposedly able to teleport others with him. He use this as his main movement skill. Registered up to 3700MPH (11/01/1994: Lyon to Jakarta in 1 hour 54 minutes).

◈ **Over-Mind; Unknown;** _Check Investigation_ _File #PDP000082-1_

 **Classification:** Shaker 12

 **Disposition** : Villain

 **Location** : Last appearance in New York **First appearance** : 1987

 **Age** : Unknown/30+ **Status** : Deceased

 **Height** :5ft 7 in **Weight** : Unknown

 **Threat** **level** : 1 **Body** **count** : Unknown, victims leave no remains.

 **Appearance** : Tall and thin. Full skin-tight white costume without facial features on it with red thin lines around the joints. Long curly auburn hair was displayed during her first appearances with a dark coloured (dark blue, dark brown, dark purple)skin-tight body costume and a black eye mask.

 **General** :

Until 26/03/1994: low profile vigilante with low rated shaker skills, eluded contact with other heroes or vigilantes. Mainly focused on violently exterminating gangs along the world theoretically to stole their resources.

After 26/03/1994: Able to bypass Manton effect. Threat level increased to level 1 due to performance during Endbringer attack; _check file #E000302-28._ Some violent encounters with PRT & Protectorate members (no M.I.A. reported)

Thinker tank report her to be pregnant during 1995

 **Personality** :

Seems like a chatty person. Prone to help children.

 **Powers** :

Have Full control of the physical environment within an estimated range of 550 yards from her, effectively making a bubble of 1100 yards wide with her in the middle were she controls almost everything, biological or not. Brute 5+ has shown some resistance to her power, brute 8+ has prove some level of immunity to her (she is still able to harm them with the environment), but eventually she can affect them too. Don't engage with her in close combat.

On a sideline she seems able to interact physically with Doom's shadow even if he doesn't know she's there. _Check footage from file #E000711-37c_

Scary couple if you ask me. As you can see there are a few extra details here and there that are missing in the wiki. For example the body count (ºoº') or the fact that The guy may be missing, not deceased as its stated in the web. For now, I have no clue about what that _Profile #PDP000082-1_ reference may mean. We have been unable to find it.

I don't know if you got anything out of this, but we are going to keep a low profile for now. No point in painting ourselves a huge bullseye on the forehead. Lets pray for it to be some joke from a couple of jerks.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster)(Veteran Member)(The guy in the know)

Replied on January 16th, 2011:

THE FUCK!? that's real data? I was like 30 feet away! Suddenly I feel like going out and celebrate the fact that I am alive.

On a side note: he doesn't event get a warning? Because you now…. Classified files and all.

OOO

 **+Topic: Shadow Stalker MIA?**

 **In: Boards** **News** **Events** **America** **Brockton Bay**

 **Ananke** (Original Poster)(Veteran Member)(Bay's Queen)

Posted on January 5th, 2011:

News on shadow Stalker? She was last seen yesterday and no announcement has been made of her actual situation. Kind of worried because she is one of the bad-asses around here and that video was disturbing.

 **(Showing page 436 of 436)**

 **Ananke** (Original Poster)(Veteran Member)(Bay's Queen)

Posted on January 17th, 2011:

XxVoid_CowboyxX: no, I'm sure that wasn't her. It's probably some PRT agent using her account. I have her actual phone number and she ain't answering messages or picking up calls. Furthermore, no one has seen her since 4th of January, that's 13 days and no statement has been made by the protectorate. She's still a minor for god sake! They can't just banish her from existence and leave us to figure it out by ourselves!

► **DeepEyes** (Veteran Member)(PRT wife)

Replied on January 17th, 2011:

Ananke please, I don't know if she is your friend or something more, but you are making a fuss of this. Some certified sources have already said she is fine.

Darling said she is fine, but must be kept in isolation for a few more days because of master stranger protocols. Its not the first time this happens to them... its just that this time it's not the whole building being sealed, which is something good.

► **Tin_Mother** (Veteran Member)(Moderator)

Replied on January 17th, 2011:

I'm sorry Ananke but I'm closing this thread. Almost half the messages are yours and it have already been established by trustworthy sources that she is safe and sound in the PRT building.

 **Thread Closed by Moderator**

► **L33T** (Veteran Member)(Verified cape)

Replied on January 17th, 2011:

Last!

 **BAN:** This user has been banned for 24 hours due to improper behavior

OOO

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** U there?

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** Yes, is it you? For real?

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** yes, you seem to be making a fuss about my disappearance and I am being allowed to chat with you from a shitty tablet.

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** Are you really alright? Were you the one to post a couple of days ago? It was exactly the same as another post you did years ago.

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** Don't think so, I'm not allowed to interact with the outside world, just because i may have shot your crappy friend in the face. By the way, this chat is being recorded to check it later in case you try to manipulate me or the other way around.

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** You shot Taylor in the face? You killed her!?

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** No, just took an eye, and panacea should have healed her by now.

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** She missed school the rest of the week. Thought you had caught her to force her into the wards.

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** She's not a parahuman, no point in doing that.

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** But there has been no incidents since she left during the wards event. It was obviously her doing.

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** No idea, but she was confirmed not to be one, first by panacea and then during a routine (sure) MRI. Sorry, but i must disconnect.

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** Still, good to know you are fine. When will they allow you out?

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** If nothing change I'll be in school next Monday.

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** Well, use this time to think of some ways to have fun when the times come.

 **Private message from Shadow Stalker:** oh, one last thing. I've been told Weaver's Clothing is up again. Wont be bad to get some treat from my friends once I get back from the hospital with my leg healed. If you know what i mean ;) see ya.

 **Private message sent to Shadow Stalker:** How subtle -_- We will pick up something good for you, don't worry XD. See you soon.

OOO

 **+Topic: Weaver's Clothing Grand Reopening!**

 **In: Boards** **News** **Events** **America** **Brockton Bay**

 **Weaver** (Original Poster)(Veteran Member)(The cloth tinker)

Posted on January 14th, 2011:

Hi all! We are back! Unfortunately we lost all of our client data and any possible missing order is just that, missing. As you all may suspect by now we were endbringered.

Starting from the next Saturday, the 22nd of this month, we will reopen our business. Tragically, most of our staff died during the attack (family members) and our equipment was destroyed, so we will start from the basics again:

-Only Brockton Bay delivers (new base is here yai!) for now. If you feel like it, you are free to come here to pick up your order.

-Limited amount of delivers per day (depending on order's size).

-For now we will only offer the low reinforce package for non-tinker items (200$ each).

-As usual, total discretion, package teleported to desired destination.

If you are interested you can contact us with a PM and a phone number will be supplied to arrange the details. It will be a disposable mobile phone and wont have any data stored within it.

Any doubts about the legals can be check in my profile. They remain the same as before.

Thanks for your time. Hope we can all work together again.

 **(Showing page 1 of 1000)**

► **Mirror** (Veteran Member)(Verified cape)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

Yes, you are back and all, but what about those of us who had loses last time? I had more that 10.000$ in your possession when you broke and I got back neither, the money or the equipment.

I think you will be facing a lot of lawsuits, mine within them.

Good look, you will need it.

;)

► **Bauble** (Veteran Member)(Verified cape)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

Same here, almost 100.000$ lost in one day. Not something easy to forget.

► **Architecte** (Veteran Member)(Verified cape)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

I wont sue you if I get my money back ;)

► **All Seeing Eyes** (Veteran Member)(Not a cape)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

You can cry all you want guys, I checked out their legal policies and contracts:

You signed for them to own your property until they chose to give it back. And the money is to pay them because of the troubles of keeping your unwanted stuff.

Other way to say it is that you actually gifted them tinker-tech and money because of the kindness of your heart, and then signed a contract to make it all legal.

In other words you are fucked. But you can cry all you want, that's actually free of charge.

PD: really, why do such clever guys sign something like that? Can't you read?

► **Dragon** (Veteran Member)(verified cape)(Tinkering)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

Good to hear of you again. I'm glad to see good tinker rogues out there making the world a safer place with their work. My condolences about your loss.

Since you had one of my drones in your possession during the attack may I have a discount in my next order? XD

When will you do tinker-items again? ^-^

All Seeing Eyes: it's called trust. They did their part of the deal for more than ten years, improving on a year to year basis. We can't condone them because of a natural alike disaster.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Veteran Member)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

It's DRAGON on PHO! Awesome! I'm buying something asap!

► **Armsmaster** (Veteran Member)(verified cape)(Protectorate Member)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

Welcome back, any expected date for tinker materials replication?

► **Weaver** (Original Poster)(Veteran Member)(The cloth tinker)

Posted on January 14th, 2011:

Dragon: Thanks you for your support and comprehension. We may be able to handle a couple of orders for you as a gesture of gratitude. But nothing to complex, we are under-equipped at the time.

Armsmaster: Sorry, but we can't confirm any date for the upgrades, it will take as much time as it takes.

► **Über** (Veteran Member)(verified cape)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

You upgrade low tinkered costumes? Tinkered cloth fibbers and such.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member)(The guy in the know)

Replied on January 14th, 2011:

Ok, this seems to be a really hot thread. 7 capes out of 10 replies. That must be a record. I'll check it.

Edit: no, it isn't :(

OOO

"MOM!" She shouted while shutting down her computer. "Pick up your wallet! We are going to buy a nice dress for Sophia!"

"Sure sweetie. Would you like to get something for you too?" Zoe said with a smile on her face and a pleased look accompanying it.

"No, but I want you to tell dad that I require Weaver to improve what we will get by the end of the week." taking a pause she kept talking. "and tell him I'll be very disappointed if he can't manage it."

With that said both left the house, it would take all the afternoon to visit all the shops and give their weekly remind to the sellers of how much they want to please her…. Maybe, if she got some time left, she could even gave her father a hand at his office, some extra incoming wont hurt.

OOO

 **Simplified Character Sheet: Sophia/Shadow Stalker**

lvl: 8

Attack: 205(mastery)

Dodge:155

Block:30

HP: 160

Running Speed: 55 feet per second

Sprinting speed: 164 feet per second (tiring)

Acrobatics, athleticism: 160

Climb: 145

Stealth: 80

Jump: 145

Notice, track: 90

Coldness: 110

Style: 50

Feats:

-Dexterity and agility +4.

-Ethereal form(lightning weakness x2)


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

 **Chrysalis** **1.** **2**

It's being a really hard week, though gratifying. Every night, running through the city, fighting criminals with my bare hands, forbidden to use my actual power. Everything in order to train and reinforce my self-control, focus and awareness, to keep me alive in close combat while my real skills remains undetected, diverting attention from them, making my enemies doubt about what I could or couldn't do.

Useless in my opinion, since I am a long range fighter, hardly ever seen by anyone. But, if that made dad happy, who was I to take him out of his delusion? It was just a little price to pay for him to allow me go do my thing unmolested.

The first night out was the worst. On my first real fight I got scared and made myself ethereal when surrounded, it was just for a fraction of a second, but dad noticed and scolded me, even if it wasn't technically a power. A few hours later it was on the net, and a bit latter someone figured out I had used some kind of shadowfication, so I was rewarded with 12 straight hours of energy manipulation training, which I actually like to do, followed by 12 hours of 'dodge the punch to the face', which I don't like that much. Dad was restraining himself (and I was cheating), but still, even if the hit itself would heal part of the damage dealt… every fail was painful. In retrospect I knew it was good for me, especially because I didn't want to be hit by real enemies, even more because I now understand how to fix my own injuries more or less, in a few days I'd be able to do it, maybe.

Unfortunately, dad discovered somehow that I had been keeping part of my concentration focused to keep Sophia from using her powers and scolded me again. After a heated argument I convinced him that no one knew it was me, nor it could be traced back to me, or else it would have already been by now. I promised I wont do it again (unless I really needed to), and in exchange I'll be allowed to go out on February the twelfth, if I keep training with him every afternoon until then and if I met his expectations by then.

After that, the training sessions got harder, but with more multitasking capability available to me it got easier all around. It had been only 9 days since we began, but I am quite proud of my improvement, probably I am now able to handle a one on one with one or even two gang members on my own without using my power, given enough time, mostly because I am not much of a hitter.

Tomorrow will be the first day of my new live as a brand new Arcadia high student. Hopefully I'll be able to get myself some friends or at least meet some acquaintances who don't actively try to make me break down. The PRT even got me some new books, but I'll have to catch up on my own, not that one and a half week out of school would make such a big difference, even less knowing no one will be dampening my progress. If mom were here, it would be just perfect. Maybe I should carry the flute tomorrow as a charm? No. I mustn't get too attached to it until I can use its power more safely. Besides, I was lucky enough to find it the first night after it was taken away to risk it being stolen again, even if now I am confident enough in my recently improved skills to find it again if needed.

"You still awake Kiddo? It's late and you must get up early tomorrow. Won't want to arrive late on yours first day, right? I'll wake you up at 6 so you can do your morning routine, its important to keep one's body fit, even more when you are still developing."

"Said the pot to the kettle. When was the last time I saw you do ANY exercise at all? I bet you would be troubled if you had to move the fridge on your own while we have any guest."

Dad smiled me back at that "Well, I used to when I was your age and there should be some advantages of being a martial master, right? Besides, my strength do not originate from my physical strength alone but from a combination of mental and physical discipline and self-consciousness… something you already know. Now, stop the idle chat and get asleep already. Night kiddo" silently, he closed the door, leaving to his room. Once again, I wondered what is it that he do there all night, without a computer or a simple television, not that I will try to discover it, he deserves his privacy and I wont be the one to deny him that.

OOO

I was woken up before the sun raised, dad wasn't wearing the same clothes he had on last night so he had probably taken a shower already. Half fried bacon's smell reached me when I was traveling the path to the bathroom, so I hurried in order to have breakfast while it was still hot. The hot water flowing over my body was such a nice sensation after all the exercise I did yesterday I'd stay there forever, not that I could do that, not if I wanted to have a nice hot meal and go take a run before school time.

Breakfast was nice as always, a couple of eggs, some sliced fried bacon, sausages, some toast with jam and butter, pancakes with syrup and a cup of black tea. Some would say it was a bit too much, but dad insisted I needed the calories and, since I could really do with some more fat onto my bones, there was no point in complain about it. If I was lucky enough, maybe some fatness would chose to take residence in those places where I were most lacking. That would be certainly nice, mom's woman attributes weren't that developed either, but hope is the last thing you lose... right? I had never heard about any women from dad's side of the family and there was hope there.

When I was halfway through mine dad was already done and ready to left for work. He had being under work exemption since that call from the hospital and now he had plenty of work to do. Apparently, some empire thugs had been compelling the substitute to hire more real Americans and fire those who were stealing the work from proper citizens, taking advantage of dad's absence. I truly hope they were not around when he got there. Even if they were Nazis, I wouldn't want them to have to deal with dad's stress, not knowing I was the one who got him like that. Hopefully, they will see his car parked outside and change their minds… unless they are new guys, if that's the case, dad will beat their asses back to their base, as he usually do with the new gangsters wannabe.

When I was done with the eating and the cleaning, it was already six thirty, so I got dresses with a dress dad had insisted to buy me the previous Friday. It was a long sleeved black/grey dress with little colored dots on it, and I actually liked it. Dad really had an eye for those things. It actually did quite a good job hiding how flat and skinned I was. Somehow, the poly/spandex material it was made of gave the impression that I was more…. developed on the right spots. That and the leather boots with the leggings hiding how skinny I was made me look almost cute... even if I was the only one who would probably think that. After that, I spent some time fixing my hair, no point in leaving my best quality go unattended.

By the time I was done it was already seven. I should probably ask dad to wake me up sooner, but I could still make a swift jog to school, not that I will sweat on my way there. If I got there soon enough maybe I could do some recce on site.

When I arrived to Arcadia it was already twenty past seven, so I just went straight to the principals office, stated to be on the second floor in my school guide. Really, this school give its students an actual guide with the school rules, maps and class schedules? In Winslow you got to find it by yourself if you were unlucky enough to not have any acquaintance there who already knew the place. The only complaint I could have is that I lost my phone signal once I got into school's boundaries, besides that, the place was polished conscientiously, no one was giving me more attention than the normal 'who is that' glance and there was even air conditioning units that could be seen on the roof. There was always the chance that another ward tried to bully me, but here they would probably be more cautious, and the PRT will probably be keeping an eye on me anyway. Anyhow, until they prove me wrong, I'll keep powers out of the scene within the school. It wont be fair for them to got spotted at school without any previous affront on their side.

After I got a lecture about everything I already knew from the manual, and a slightly bigger stress over the bulling part and how it wont be tolerated inside or outside of the school walls (probably something the PRT asked for), I was allowed to leave to my first class of the day. I waited outside the door for a good fifteen minutes while the teacher was explaining to my future classmates that no, the protectorate was not getting lazy with ward's identity protection because I wasn't a ward and that yes, the school actually got some people from the waiting list in from time to time, even if it was a slow process. When the matter seemed to be solved, I was called in and required to introduce myself to my class mates by an old looking white haired woman.

"Hello all, I'm Taylor Hebert and uhm... I'm glad to be allowed to meet you all and...well… I hope we all get along well?" thoughts about how laughs would fill the class accompanied by some nasty commentaries about how retarded I was filled my mind.

Instead, all I got back were some curious gazes, as if waiting for me to suddenly burst out in flames or something like that, alongside with a few smiles from them and giggles from some girls who reminded me of Madison with their childish look.

"I think you already got your books, right?" I quickly nodded to her "then take that empty seat over there so we can begin with the class."

I got into my new desk, while she was searching through some king of folder as old looking as she did herself, which was a huge change for the best from my last one, and shacked the hand that the guy there offered me. It was weird to be greeted in some way at school.

"Hi!, I'm _Christopher_ _Thomas_ , but you can call me Chris. Pleased to meet you, but I would like to ask you something if there is no problem with it" Tentatively I nodded him to go on, there came the other shoe as expected." How did you managed to get in here? I mean, I've heard that only when some new wards join their ranks people is allowed to join after the school year has already started, not to say in January." well, that wasn't really that bad.

"oh…. Uhm… well, pleased to meet you too and… lets say I'm not sure if I should actually talk about it?"

"Come on! I wont tell anyone, promise!" 'yea sure, you wont until you felt like betraying me' I thought, tempted to read his mind and find out what he was really thinking, but I wasn't at Winslow anymore, I had to give them the benefit of the doubt. If I was betrayed again, well, I had means to take revenge with no one being the wiser.

"Will you be satisfied if I tell you that the PTR thought I had triggered, which I hadn't, and fucked it up?"

"I knew it! Would you mind if I tell my friends it was you? There are some rumors on the net that they screw it all up badly while trying to fix Shadow stalker problem during an interview with a non-cape suspect" My new founded hope in humanity plummeted. I knew he would spread it and still gave him the information he was looking for.

"I'm not sure I want it to be spread. Please, don't tell anyone, please."

"Ok, OK, relax. I wont tell them." he said while raising his hands protectively, as if trying to placate me or calm me down "Its just that some of them would love to know. But, the second you don't care about it any more, I'm the first one to be told, deal?" tempted again, I diverted my train of thoughts, still wanting to believe that there was people trustworthy out there.

"hum… Sure?"

After that odd interaction, the professor found the page she had been looking for and began the class, with everyone pretending to be paying attention. It was revealing to see how different this place truly were. Apparently they had been told to read Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare that weekend. Most, obviously haven't. The professor had been asking questions about it to random students or asking for interpretations. Only a couple seemed personal interpretation while the others were clearly drawn from the net and memorized (or written down on cribsheets), with a bunch of them obviously being slightly variations from one another.

Chris seemed to be on the last side of the statement. He had download some pre-analysed text commentaries and was obliviously reading them from his phone. When the teacher was pleased enough about his obviously professional deconstruction of the play and got its claws on another student he turned to me and whispered me while smiling.

"I really hate this subject. Reading that book felt as if I were trying to build a nuclear reactor with only a screwdriver and some gum. Besides, she can't even see us because she hardly ever carry her glasses, you could actually take out your laptop and do the searches to answer her questions while she does them." Even with his awkward metaphor, seeing them be lazy gave all this a more mundane appearance, making it feel more like the school I knew, but righter at the same time.

OOO

After the bell rang, while packing our own stuff he asked "So, which is your next subject?"

"I think its computer science, why?" _what does he want now, and why is he smiling? Maybe planing some prank? Agh... I'm doing it again, focus Taylor, focus._

"Me too, I can take you there if you want me to." I stared him straight in the eye for a few seconds until he kept talking. "Oh, well, you know, you are new here and I can play the guide for you. We only have five minutes after one class end to get to the next one and the best seats are usually taken fast."

"I… I see, that's nice of you, thanks."

Following him we reached the classroom in no time, apparently among the first ones to arrive. The class was obviously better supplied that the one back at Winslow, the computers were obviously tinker-made or very close to that. At least forty ultra-flat screens no smaller than 21" if I was right, evenly allocated around the class. The blackboard was actually a touch-sensitive projection linked to the teacher's computer if what Chris told me was true. While I was being dragged to the rear end of the room by him, someone else got inside. It was a mousy brown haired girl. I had the feeling of knowing her, but couldn't put a name to her face at the time. When she saw us, I notice recognition in her eyes, thought she said nothing to us until Chris waved his hand to her, a gesture she acknowledged and returned.

When Chris was done pulling me and we sat down he began to speak again.

"This are the best seats. When you are done with your assignment, no one will notice if you surf a little online and, if you want, I can give you a hand with yours." _How nice of him. Trying to help the transferred student._

"Thanks for your offer, but I'm quite proud of my computer skills." _does he seems… disappointed?_

Before I could said anything else, people hurried inside followed by a thirty-something man, whom I assumed to be the teacher. He sat down and the blackboard came to life. After a fifteen minutes explanation and some guidelines he prompted us to do our assignment. It was an easy enough to program prime number generator, which would increase the final mark of the subject by 0'5 for the 5 (working) best. Apparently, he did that a lot. Having done it before just for fun, it took me just a couple of minutes to finish it confident enough about final code. Apparently, Chris had one already on his memory stick so he just needed to copy it into the computer. _Cheater_. But I could focus on the bright side, I had more than one hour to do whatever I wanted online since the teacher wouldn't notice it. I should show Chris some gratitude for it afterwards, he's the first person to be nice to me, without been required or forced to do so, in almost two years after all.

There was a new entry in PHO from Aegis stating that Shadow Stalker was fully recovered and back to her duties, accompanied by tons of post about their failure on locating the culprit and the fact that no statement had been made about how she got better or how she lost her powers in the first place. There were even some post suggesting that the S9 was the responsible and accusing the PRT to hide it. Not my problem, since they deserve it as a karmic retribution. Besides that, the most relevant thread today was about Uber and L33t last feat. Even without sound, it was hilarious to see, so much that I was pinched a few times by Chris to call my attention about my noisy giggles.

When the class was over, I asked Chris for some tips about the cafeteria menu, leaving after I declined his offer to introduce me to his friends. I was not ready to interact with that many people from day one, not after almost two years of hearing others' nasty thought about me. I was going to need some time to got accustomed to that place before I could make some new friends.

The rest of the day passed smoothly, Chris wasn't in my last 2 subjects and only a couple of girls made any effort to interact with me. They were nice, but lost most of their interest in me after I assured them I was not a new member of the wards who had not been yet introduced to the public, nor I was a parahuman. That afternoon went on exactly like the previous two ones, even if there was a little difference: Sophia had been stalking me all night. Dad noticed someone on the other side of the street, on top of a tree, and asked me to check it out discreetly. Apparently, they were going to be there as long as they thought we hadn't noticed. I could have called the PRT to remove Sophia from there, and ask for some compensation or a restraining order, but I didn't want her to be sent away, not yet anyway. If she was close, I would have another chance to kick her ass sooner or later. Emma was there too, which was the real problem. She was more dangerous than her little minion. I was planning to just wait and see if she kept coming too. If so, I would make a call to the PRT with my worries about how Shadow Stalker was stalking me all night, making it harder to for them to spy on me again.

OOO

My first week as a normal, if shy, high school student has almost went by and I have made some acquaintances. Maybe even a friend if I count Chris as such. From time to time he says or does something weird but, overall, he's funny and nice to be with. Today, I have agreed to meet with his friends, something I should have thought about better. He was leading me to a high populated table while a lot of other student were glaring at me with what could be understood as envy. There were 4 guys on that table and 2 girls. The issue was that one of those girls was Victoria Dallon, alias Glory Girl, with easily a dozen of cronies on her back, keeping a too short of a distance for my taste from them, gossiping. The other one was her sister, who shared one of my classes and I was in good terms with already.

"You ready Taylor?" he asked on a low voice. I obviously wasn't, but nervously gave him a signal to go on. I would have to do it sooner or latter if I wanted to have any sane-alike social life "Well guys, this is Taylor. I have already told you all about her so..." he took a pause to glare one of the boys, who was apparently going to say something but didn't. "Taylor, they are from right to left: Carlos, he's a nice and reliable guy" the boy with long black hair and a nice tan nodded smiling back to me. "I guess you know who she is because well, she cant even sit down like a normal person" he added while pointing to one of the girls.

The gorgeous blonde, floating slightly over what was meant to be her seat, waved at me "Pleased to meet you! We definitely could do with some more girls on this group, right Amy?" Amy made the smallest possible movement to agreed with her sister before she resumed her meal right after showing a small smile in my general direction.

Chris just went on ignoring her. "The Blonde cutie Vicky is attached to is called Dean, followed by our personal body builder, also known as John. On the other side we got Amy, who I thing you already know and last, and definitely least, we've got Dennis." the previously glared guy made an irritated funny expression.

"Are you sure that you want to touch my buttons Chris? I'm sure your little girl... friend would love to know th..." and he suddenly went mute while changing his whole facial expression. A weird combination of fear and sadness mixed with untold hate. He was discretely looking to Dean. Probably the guy got hit under the table or something. _What was he trying to say? Do I want to know?_ Before I could did or said anything, he was standing and, without any further commentary, he left.

"Sorry you had to see that Taylor" Dean said softly "He's a nice guy, but got a mouth too big for his own good and an even worst sense of what to say, when to say it or even how to say it. Don't worry about him, before you even notice it, he will be back with a well planed revenge, and one of us will hate him because of some random out of place remark."

Chris sat me next to Amy and offered to treat me to something from the school cafeteria, leaving me with them. They seemed nice enough and, when he came back, Dennis was trailing and pestering him about something while poking his side incessantly.

School was getting better on a daily basis. If it keep up long enough like that, I may even make some more friends within the group, even if Amy only reacted to Vicky questions when she was around, John were lost in his own thoughts most of the time and everyone made a point of ignoring Dennis.

When I was about to leave, Chris invited me to go with them to Flugy Bob on Sunday.

I'd been needing fewer food lately, but it didn't mean I couldn't enjoy it with my new self called friends. It wouldn't be bad to add some fat to my bones here and there and I could really use some kind of socialization outside of the school yard, something dad would approve of.

Like that, the days went on peacefully.

OOO

Tonight is the night. All my hard work will be rewarded with dad's faith. I'm going out for the first time on my own, but I need to be careful to not be injured. Tomorrow I'm going to go with the guys again to Flugy's and it would be hard to explain why I am injured. I still need to chose a name but, since I'll be avoiding para-humans, there shouldn't be a need for one just yet. The costume, on the other side was something I have had to create. I have done some research and the best material I could use to craft it was the Darwin's bark spider's silk. At first I thought about having a bunch of spiders doing it, but it would take months if I had to wait for them to finish it. The second option was a bit more dangerous but incredibly more efficient and, taking some safety measures, it should be fine. Beside, I could use some practice if I intended our business to work out smoothly at any nearby point. Dad got some silk samples for me to work on. While he was trying to get his hands on them I made some more research and decide to make a helmet and a breastplate resembling the material limpet's teeth are made of.

The final product was awesome. I may have inherited mom's dressmaking talent, even if I needed to use the flute's power to create it. The costume was a one piece gray bodysuit made out of silk and smalls plates of highly reinforced goethite nanofibres within a softer chitin matrix all over the vital organs and the helmet, with a dark gray wriggly pattern over it and dark grey lenses made out of spinel ceramics wrapped around my spare pair of glasses, resembling a huge eyed woman's face. At the end, I had made a costume twice as strong as a kevlar one, but with less than one fifth of its weight, with enough reinforcement on the vital areas to withstand the most common armor-piercing ammunition. It would be extremely painful, yes, but pain fades. Besides, the fact that dad has approved of it gave me some reassurance about its capabilities.

When I was on my way out, dad was there waiting for me, with something on his hands.

"You ready kiddo? Take this with you and be safe OK?" he said while handling me a mobile "and left yours here, I have already memorized mine in this one and assigned it to the nine fast call options. Press any number for more than two seconds and I'll be right there. Understood?" _just my luck. And I thought dad ha_ _d_ _got_ _ten_ _over his overprotective self._

"Yes dad. I've got it. But, if anything goes wrong, I'll be here before anyone knows what's going on but... dad, really? All the fast call buttons?"

"I'm your dad, worrying comes as a free perk with the job. Now, bear with it and be back safe and sound soon, promise?"

That said, I nodded and he gave me a kiss on the forehead, wishing me luck before leaving to his bedroom. I observed him slowly climbing the stairs until he was out of sight and then, I was gone too.

It was easy to leave through the backyard of the house unseeing w **ith** **the** **waxing crescent moon** and, with the new moon having been only 2 days ago, I got a fairly dark night to cover my movements.

After an hour of drifting around I found some thugs. They were a couple of druggies bulling a scruffy young girl. It wont be on any first page nor drag attention, so dad should be fine with it. Slowly and stealthily I approached the pair from behind them while hammering their mental defenses down, not that they weren't almost non-existent, but better safe than sorry. The girl noticed me and called for help when I was still a bunch of feet away, making the merchants twist around.

"Hey ya! We'rar yeer goin little bitch? Wanna get some go'd shit? Or her' to've fuuun with us?" half said one of then, which was holding a tiny butter knife on his shaking hand while making obscene movements with the other. The other one was just staring at me… or maybe somewhere behind me, I wasn't sure, with a lecherous look on his eyes. Perverts.

I should have probably give them some heroic speech about why they must be punished. "what? No! I'll fucking kill you bastards!" _OK, there goes my speech._ I definitely needed some practice, or to memorize something so I didn't have to improvise it. I should have brought a small notebook to take notes about everything I came up with before I forget it.

When they literally felt to the ground laughing, I kind of had a bad reaction. Probably destroying their conscious minds was not the right thing to do, but they were already halfway there, so I just gave them a friendly push. I had overdone it a bit, but that way they wouldn't hurt anyone else. It was definitively the right thing to do. While staring at their soulless bodies, I realized that they could come in handy.

When I was done checking them, and throwing away their phones, I left the girl there to recover and took them home through the sewers. After a bit chat with dad about my new idea, which he happened to love, I left and kept pacing around. The night was young, and so was I.

OOO

When I was already growing bored, I found a big group of Asians. Unexpectedly, they were talking in English, most of them at least. They were not a valid target, but a peek wouldn't harm anyone, or so I thought. One of them was a parahuman, probably the leader. The other thirty seven were not, but some had guns and the rest carried blunt objects, like pipes or a variety of bladed objects. Definitively not an acceptable target.

When I was about to leave, their leader raised his voice to say something worrisome.

"…alou it! Dose kids will learn to not to play us… ...pain and death will teach 'em!"

Maybe it wasn't to specific, nor coherent, but hey, they were going to murder kids? Not during mom's watch, and certainly not during mine if I wanted to be half as good as she was. Not that I would run to fight them face to face, it had to be done properly, and dad had been really insistent on the need to misguide other about what you can and cannot do, even if he did not gave me any tips about how to do it properly.

OOO

They were walking through the middle of the street, half way to their final destination. Those bastards were going to pay and stay away from their territory, if they somehow managed to survive. When halfway there, they all noticed something was off. Hundreds of rats could be seen ahead, as if waiting for them. The leader stopped on his trail and the others began to mutter. Suddenly, the rats were surrounding them and closing the circle tightly. When the first one panicked and tried to run away was assaulted by them and, after a few bites, went prone. Lung shouted as hard as he could, ordering them to get ready, but the vermin was already falling onto them.

They were easy to kill, but from within the ones that the gangsters took down, cockroaches came to live, and those who touched them fell to the ground to be covered by the mass. Lung was already eight feet tall and mostly covered by scales and fire when it was over. The infestation vanished, with only his followers remained, most already standing and rearming themselves.

When all of them were up and ready something unexpected happened. One of them shot lung on the face, twice. Before lung could understood what was going on, the rest of them began their own attacks. He was surrounded by his own followers and being attacked. It was obviously the doing of a parahuman, but nothing could be done about it until they were disabled.

They were actually unable to harm him lastingly, some couldn't even do it at all, not for real, so he took his time with them, taking them down with the minimum amount of damage possible in an almost gentle wat. After a few minutes of fighting, he was already to tough and hot for them to be able to approach him without being burned, but they still did, getting burned or missing fingers when hitting him barehanded or with their feet, so he took flight the second he was able to, preventing his underlings to get any further injuries with their useless assault.

From the air something new was visible, something he had been unable to notice while on the ground. There was a spot on the road, probably where it all had begun, that was devoid of targets or damage. He had being obviously pushed and dragged out of there, while the rest of the road was heavily damaged. Maybe the master was hiding there within the sewers and it was worth a try.

Throwing his massive body into the asphalt, he landed heavily and sank his claws deep within the pavement until he felt something tender on the other side. Then, he closed his paw and pulled it out.

It was a small man with dark filthy clothes covering him, desperately trying to get himself free and obviously in pain from his tight embrace, his skin and clothes burning with the contact. "'U 'll 'AY!" Lung stated. Without wait for an answer, he took a big bite out of his enemy, while all of his followers were again deeply burning themselves trying ineffectively to stop him. As he was swallowing his arm and probably his right lung too, the man passed out or more probably died. But his allies were still doing their best to suicide against him. Deciding he was not the master, Lung throw him away with a strong swift motion ready to take to the skies again but, before he could, something touched his leg. It was the man, standing there with a huge gap on he right upper torso. His heart, savagely beating, visible through the wound, holding a burned to the bone hand over Lung's scaled skin. After that slight touch, everything when still. Slowly, the man began to walk away form him. His costume half burned, but his pace steady. Here and there second-degree burns could be seen through the wrecked clothes. The PRT's siren could be heard rumbling in the distance, approaching. Big Shadows could be seen on top of the building's roof on its back, motionless. His own arms began to move. With will of their own, unchallenged.

Atrocious pain burst forth and, then, nothing.

OOO

The merchants were going to go down that night. It had been easy to orchestrate it with minimal effort on his part. Now, it was time to take advantage of it. While those Neanderthals were busy fighting each other, the Undersiders would steal everything not nailed to the floor inside the ABB main base, unaware that the real target was the information Lung was gathering from a new para-human he was planing to recruit. All left was to split reality. In one he would send the Undersiders to the ABB's base to pillage everything they could, while in the other they would wait in a safe position in the docks.

It all went according to the plan, at least until Tattletale phoned him.

" _Something is wrong. We found an unexpected threat! Grue and Regent are dead! Bitch is following me right know with her dogs and murderous intent! I need assistance, it's a matter of time before they find me!"_ breathless, his underling said.

"Wait Tattletale, I need some details, how did they died and why is bitch chasing you? Hurry up and I'll fix it all with my power."

" _Lung was fighting his own subordinates, or so we thought until he pulled that cape out of the sewers._ _We tried to join the fight as a distraction to rescue_ _h_ _er_ _, but our intentions were misunderstood!_ _He's_ _Some kind of master, stronger than regent and able to control anything alive, but needs to have physical contact with the target,_ _he_ _h_ _im_ _self or any of_ _his_ _minions!_ _And_ _he_ _must have some brute_ _and mover_ _rating, because….Rrrgggggg…..AAAHHHHHH…..._ _"_ With that the call ended abruptly.

So the merchants had some new parahuman on their ranks, and a really dangerous one if her data was reliable, the question was why Tattletale said 'her' originally but them referred to her as him? Maybe it was due to her panicked state? But that he could thought about later. All left was to collapse this time line and…. There was a man, or at least part of one right in from of him. His burned hair was stuck to his back, eyelids retracted showing his charred eyeballs and the costume he was wearing, if those rags were a costume at some point. It was almost non-existent with the only remains of it half stuck to him with the solidified blood. His left hand was holding another arm attached to part of a driping human torso, probably his own. All of his body was covered in deep burns with burned bone exposed here and there, showing a clear image of his insides. The fetid, heavy smell, of a burned wet dog reached him while the man was slowly approaching him, letting his innards fall out, tainting the ground with half coagulated blood and boiled guts. A weird dark mist flowing out of the gaps, keeping it all together but wrong shaped.

When he tried to put his mind into words the world turned into a blurry of images. The man was inside of his mind, rummaging and twisting. Every passing second a nightmare of pain and suffering. And then, thoughts began to flow into his mind, alien thoughts of remorse. Unable to discard this reality he began to hurt himself in the other one, the one he wanted to keep. First one wrist, then the other, he desperately needed to die, to end the suffering anyhow, but when he was about to cut his own throat something connected, this wasn't his doing nor his own will, and the reality finally collapsed.

The base doctor was treating his self-inflicted wounds, but it was still disturbing. Then, a call came in from Tattletale. Before he took it, the realities were already split and he was half way to the garage in one of them before the call was answer in the other.

"Yes Tattletale?"

" _Reporting in, we saw lung fighting and approached to take a peek. He was disembowelling himself while a cape was looking at him. We are retreating, mission aborted. Wont engage with an unknown cape who did that to lung even if he lost an arm and his right lung in the process."_

"That's fine Tattletale, you would be rewarded as promised, mission completed." but then he remembered "Was it a man or a woman?"

" _Its a man sir, but now that you ask, he had a girly way to move, and seemed to be uncomfortable with his body size. It could be some kind of projection or body substitution power."_

"Good job, return to your base. The payment will be on your accounts by morning."

Hanging up, he relaxed a bit. This cape was dangerous and would be kept under surveillance. She, or he, could affect him through the link, somehow, but was not able to retain whatever knowledge it got in the collapsed reality, hopefully, or he would surely be dead by then. That kind of situations made him nervous, was he making parallel realities each time he used his powers? Dooming himself in one to survive in the other? If so, what would happen to his self from the discarded one? Would he be suffering until that cape got satisfied? Better not to think about it. He had more important matters to attend. If she was an enemy, there had to be a way to destroy her, if not, there could be a way to drag her under his wings.

While he was plotting, scheming and planing, a gap in the room opened up. From it, a suited up woman came in and, without further introduction nor explanation, asked "What have you done?"

OOO

While on patrol duty with shadow stalker, kid win saw something disturbing. Lung was right in front of him. A few blocks away, true, but with his actual size the distinction didn't really matter that much.

"Kid win reporting in. Lung is fighting someone, he is already 25 feet long, at least, we require assistance right now! Shadow Stalker is already on her way there."

" _NO, wait for reinforcement, Stalker, that goes for you too. Wouldn't want to have to suspend you again. Armsmaster is already on his way and the rest of the protectorate and PRT is being called in. ETA 2 minutes. Stalker WAIT for reinforces!"_

SS stopped on her heels, and kid came closer to her. Both waited silently until everything got silent again, with only the far away sirens breaking the quietness. Soon enough, they saw Armsmaster's motorbike surpass them and pursued him.

The scene was grotesque at best. The street was battlefield alike, and burnt gore was spread everywhere. There were plenty of dead vermin, mostly fried rats and cockroaches, but there were also more than a dozen, burned to the bone, human corpses. In the middle of it all, there was a rip apart dragon. His insides were spread around him. His stomach laying a few feet away from him, unfold. Unexpectedly, his chest was raising up with every hard inhalation. His size decreasing, and his wounds slowly closing. Maybe too slowly.

It was going to be a long night, and nightmares would stalk him for a long time.

OOO

Dad was mad at me. After I found a place not to evident nor to hard to find, I left the druggy's body to die peacefully, I shut down the incredibly excruciating connection and returned to my own body to find dad there, waiting for me to wake up in order to yell at me, something he did while I was still feeling a residual phantom pain from the just suffered traumatic experience.

He saw the fire and went to check it, just to find me there fighting a parahuman just as he had forbidden me to do... and I had promised not to do. It was a long night with him scolding me until morning.

It seems I had not done that well as I thought that whole 'hide your true powers nature' thing from his point of view. I'd be classified as a master and the PRT would know exactly how to deal with me from day one if there had been even a single survivor. Not only I had shown what my powers can do, but I have also beaten someone able to go one on one with an Endbringer to the brink of death. If I was lucky, they would found that guy's body and frame him with the deaths. If there have been any witness or the woman I saved chose to talk, the PRT would begin to search for me and possibly place a level one threat mark over my profile. I would need to make a new costume and develop some evidently different skills from the ones I'll be suspected to have if I ever wanted dad to allow me to play cape again.

OOO

 **Simplified Character Sheet:** **Average Citizen**

lvl: 0

Attack: 10

Dodge: 10

Block: 10

HP: 70

Running Speed: 9 feet per second

Sprinting speed: 22 feet per second (tiring)

One skill: 75

Five skills: 20

Feats:

None.


End file.
